Love Unexpected
by Mystiq72
Summary: Love is an unexpected thing. It comes when you need it the most, and leads you to the person that needs yours. Edward/OC pairing I'm gonna do a lot of these rated m just in case but nothing too intense A good read!
1. A path

Love unexpected

_+Heyy this is Miu. I'm here to shed new light on anime possibilities. I do __**not**__ own any anime shows I may write about nor its characters, however I will be adding many new characters, (they will be represented by a [~] at the begining of a chapter or story. This is my first comedy/romance so I hope you like it!_

_~Colonel Naomi Bella Yeda and Lieutenant John Reese_

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Ed's POV

_It's freezing today. I can't remember seeing so much snow in the air, but little on the ground. Its bizzare. I wonder if Al noticed. _I thought to myself.

"Hey Ed!" He woke me out of my daze. It took me a while to realize I had ran into a wall. Even longer to realize one of the most horrible pains in my life. "AAAAHHHHHHHH!" I grabbed my face with both hands. "Dammit!" I didn't hit the wall hard or anything but the temp was so cold I thought my nose would shatter.

"Brother look!" Al pointed and I followed his gaze. _We're_ _here._

3 days earlier

It's been three years now since the death of Nina and Alexander, but even still we were traumatized. We've seen alot since then but that still might be the most horrible event we have faced. It lurks in the back of my mind while we try to find the stone. _The_ _world_ _is_ _a_ _cold_ _place._ I froze when I thought that days ago while walking to Colonel Mustang's office. It worried me. Why? Because the voice was not my own. It was a girl's voice, soft and gentle, yet full of hatred. I was going to start to question my sanity if Al hadn't snapped me out of it. He motioned me to go on in first. I opened the door.

"Hello Edward and Alphonse. Please have a seat." He looked us up and down as we sat with a cold hard stare. It kinda freaked me out. "Do you two know why I've called you here today?" He was so emotionless.

"Because you missed us?" I said playfully. He frowned and I froze once again.

"No that is not why. You two have been slacking off and your gaurd is threateningly down. You need proper training to help boost you back up again. I am sending you to Colonel Yeda's alchemy training camp for 1 week to see how you adjust there." He looked from Al to me then back again. "How do you two feel about that decision? "

We sat in silence. I'm not sure for how long but I know it must've been a while till Al spoke up. "Alright, we'll do it." I stared at my younger brother in shock. He barely ever makes decisions on his own, even rarer for both of us. Colonel Mustang looked at me in shock as well. When I could only shrug he said in a loud happy, for Colonel Mustang, voice, "Alright then it's settled. You're leaving tonight at 8."

We both yelled it at the same time. "What! You already planned this!"

"Yes. If you didn't want to go by choice we figured we could simply force you to go. Any problems with that?"

We both said no and after he explained to us the time to get there and its location, we were off. It was already past 7:30, so we stood at the train stations in empty silence, yet knowing what the other was thinking.

End of flashback

The door openend and we walked in. It was huge. It had a huge outer cement wall with the gate doors. The inside had a huge open space with rock depree scattered everywhere. One lone person was sweeping as much of it up as he could. "Excuse me!" I yelled, "Do you know where the colonel is?" He looked me up and down, which usually doesn't take much, and laughed a sinister laugh. "Ha ha, you'll never make it a day in this place unless you eat hardwork for breakfast everyday!"

Another man with a girl my age came in our direction. The girl slapped the man who talked to us and whisperrd something in his ear that made him shudder and he hurriedly continued to sweep again. The two approached us. Suprisingly the girl spoke first.

"Hello you two we've been expecting you. I am Colonel Naomi Bella Yeda. You may only refer to me as Colonel Yeda. This is Lieutenant John Reese." The man made a shy wave. Her voice was almost like Winrey's, commanding and with authority over you, and her body shape was near similiar too except this girl had silky layered light and dark brown hair that flowed gently down to the middle of her back. Her big, bold eyes were a sort of light almond brown with bits of copper. She had thin eyebrows and moist looking lips. Her breasts were even bigger than Winrey's and rounder in shape too. She had a thin body like Winrey's though and now that I think about it, that's about all that looks similiar between the two. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Alphonse put his hand up. The girl looked at him and said, "Yes?"

"Um sorry if I'm being rude(Al and his kindness) but um how old are you?"

She smiled at him, looked at me than quickly looked back. I might have seen her blush but I'm not sure.

"I'm glad you asked. I'm 15 years old." My jaw dropped as I looked at this 15 year old colonel.

"WHATTT!" I yelled. I looked at the man in disbelief. He nodded a little disappointed looking himself. When I met her gaze and saw a straight emotionless face staring at my own, I continued "How could you possibly be a colonel, you look barely older than me?" _Which_ _is_ _untrue_ _considering_ _that_ _her_ _body_ _looks_ _that_ _of_ _an_ _18_ _year_ _old_ _young_ _woman,_ _except_ _for_ _her_ _height._ "You're shorter than I!" _By_ _like_ _3 inches,_ I _thought to_ _myself._

With that the expressionless look on her face was replaced with anger. "WHO YOU CALLIN SHORT SHRIMP! A GIRL MY AGE IS SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HEIGHT! YOU'RE THE ONLY SHORT ONE HERE!" The two of us got in a mad electrifying staring contest, growling at each, yelling 'YOU STUPID SHRIMP' and 'YOU SHORT MORON'. Soon Lieutenant Reese had his fill and grabbed the two of us by the backs of our shirts. "Shall we head inside? It's only going to get colder you know. You dont want to catch a cold again now do you?" She growled at his response and it was obvious he was a little scared. She looked at him and calmed down. "Fine." She said in her more profesional commanding tone. She held her hand out towards the nearest door inside the actual camp. "Shall we go in?" We all entered on her silent command, all the while she was constantly keeping an eye on me. _Her_ _eyes..._ I thought to myself for some strange reason.

Bella's POV

We entered the building. Lieutenant Reese took off with the armor boy, leaving me with full metal. I groaned at the thought of it. "So are you going to show me to my room or stand there and pout?" He said so mockingly. I turned around to say something back at him but stopped when I saw him. He was leaning on his shoulder against the wall with his arms crossed. He was frowning but then suddenly stopped when I turned to him. Instead of barking at him I told him to follow. We walked in silence for a while before he decided to break it. "So how'd you do it?" I turned and looked at him in bewilderment. "Do what?" "Become a colonel."

Ed's POV

She had a pained look on her face. Her eyes read soft and gentle yet full of hatred. But how-? "I don't want to talk about it." This time I was bewidered. "Why not?" I said in an accusingly tone. "Cause you cheated or something?" Our eyes met. I could read her so well. All of her emotions in one place. She could tell too cause she turned her face. "Leave it alone. Let's continue." And she walked on without another word. I don't know why. It was so strange. But even still, I reached forward and grabbed her. "Are you ok?" I asked; the pained tired look in her eyes told me she wasn't. She sighed and replied "Yes I'm just tired. Can we please go now?" Her eyes said she was truly too young for her duties. "Ok then lead the way boss." Her mouth did domethimg close to a smile and she continued on with me by her side. We walked on for another 10 minutes before we reached my new room. Then she suddenly gasped and looked down. I looked down too and realized that I was still holding her hand. How could I have forgotten? And judging by her gasp she had forgotten as well. I decided to tease her a bit.

"So were you planning on taking me somewhere?" Her slight blush showed that it worked but then she threw it back at me twice as hard. "You were the one who grabbed me. Planning on leading me in your room pervert?" My gaurd was down so I blushed at full force. She saw and did a cute slight giggle but then almost immediately stopped herself. I stopped blushing too and looked at her seriously. "I can't believe what the military can do to a person. To kids." "I'm not a kid! I am a responsible adult with duties to-" I put my finger on her lips. I opened my door and brought her inside and sat her on the bed. She looked confused so I explained. I put my left hand under her chin and brought her face towards mine and said "If you're really an adult have sex with me. Now."

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+Woah what an ending. I couldn't even believe it and I wrote it. Well chapter 2 will have the result of that, so stay tuned and I'll be back soon. Signing out!

Miu


	2. A twist

+Hello hello hello! Miu you here. Well here comes chapter two of Love Unexpected! Enjoy! =D

I don't own any of the full metal alchemist characters. (Or any other characters I snuck in there, if you can notice. ;) )

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Bella's POV

_What! _I thought rapidly; his body is nearing mine coming closer and closer. I blacked out.

I snapped out of it and when I looked around I saw a gaping hole in the wall and Edward was in the hall semi-unconscious. "Owwee..." he moaned. "What happened?" I asked. I smirked. "Was that sex?" "I hope not." he groaned; by now a swarm of students came flooding into the hallway. "Ha ha! Don't tell me you actually tried to!" The students burst out in laughter. Ed's cheeks went red and he looked down. "Attention!" Everyone went quite. "Make it to your rooms in 10 seconds or you'll do 300 pushups before breakfast! Go now!" Everyone scrambled, except Edward. He struggled to get up. "Stop" I told him as I walked toward him. He looked up suprised. _His_ _eyes._ "Put your arm around my shoulder and neck." He did and I pulled him up and half carried him to his bed. "Are you ok?" He nodded but didn't speak. He motioned towards himself and I leaned in. He whispered in my ear "For a quick moment after you blacked out I was on top of you." When I leaned away from him he had a smirk on his face but I quickly slapped it off for him. "Pervert." He put his hand on his now red again cheek and smiled "I told you you were still a kid." I puffed and turned my head away from him "That proved nothing. " I said stubbornly. "Fine then. Well good night Bella." I froze. "Never call me that name again." He looked confused. "Why not?" "That is for me to know and for you to never find out." And with that I left his room. "We'll see." I could hear him say.

NEXT DAY

I woke up late today at 5:35 am. "Damn, I need a shower." I walked to my personal bathroom connected to my room. I picked a short black kimono and baggy black jeans with silver chains connected to my belt loops. I took my mother's blue emerald pendent. I took my towel and entered the bathroom. I slowly took my clothes off and put the ones I picked out on the side of the sink. I turned the water on and entered the shower, immediately filled with warmth. After about 4 minutes I turned the shower off, but still I stood there. My left hand touched the center of my back, and I was suddenly overpowered by a no longer existent pain. Memories flouded back to me. I felt cold and scared. I let go off my back and when I looked at my hand, I saw that my hand was stained with blood from me gripping my back with my nails, piercing my skin. "Dammit." I slip out of the shower and wrap bandage around my body. I wash my hands and look at my reflection in the water. When I see the best my nails will get, I shut off the water and enter my room. "Oh! My clothes." As I head back to my bathroom to retrieve my forgotton clothes, I hear a knock at my door. "Huh?" I quickly dress and open the door to find those eyes staring at me. I do a sort of grunt and make a move to close the door but he stops me. We just stare at each other, his royal gold eyes against my casual copper peppered ones. Then, as if he just woke up, he shakes his head and says, "Mornin' Bella!" His voice is suprisingly enrgetic for so early in the morning. I nearly yell at him,"Don't call me by that name!" He smirked as if that's what he wanted to hear. I have the strongest urge to choke him yet I somehow resist. I try to close the door again but again his hand is in the way. "Is there something you need Elric?" He smiles. "Well yeah. I was kinda hoping that we could walk down to the cafeteria together." "Sorry but I don't eat this early. Besides don't forget I'm your superior. I wouldn't eat lunch with you anyways, Elric." He smirked, which pissed me off enough to punch him in the mouth. He rubbed his jaw. "Fine," he pouted," I'll eat alone then. Again." He turned his back to me. _Again? _That was enough to throw me off my train of thought. He must've wanted that cause I could see a smirk forming on his face. But I know better than to fall into his trap._ Its because his brother. _I frown and try to change the subject.

"What are you doing up so early anyhow?" He said. He turned and his eyes had that look again, no, that feeling. _Why must he keep doing that with his eyes. _I sighed. "You're really annoying you know that. No wonder Roy tried to get rid of you. You're such a pain." He continues to stare at me, at my eyes, not the rest of my body like the other men. _Well he is still a boy as far as maturity goes. _"I train early in the morning." He nods and asks if he could join me. "Regular training for all students starts at 8. No exepctions."

"Fine then I'll be the best one there. " he said in a fake proud voice that doesn't fit him at all. I sigh again. "You're two handfuls. " He grinned and walked off.

Ed's POV / 2 hours later

"Al, where's my boots!" I run frantically over the room in my socks checking every single spot I think they might be. I nearly run into a wall each time I halt to a stop. "Ed calm down! They're in the closest remember?" I do and I feel stupid to have forgotten something so obvious. I grab my shoes and stuff my feet inside, then frantically look for my favorite black v-neck. "Have you seen my v-neck?" Al sighs and tells me it's also in the closet along with my signature red jacket and my pants.

Finally after 10 whole minutes of me scrambling like a mouse Al had had enough. " Ed what does it matter! It's not a dress-to-impress, its training! What's wrong with you?" Finnally he says the very words I have been replaying in my head over and over for the past two hours. _What's wrong with me? How can one person make you do so much? Bella. _Her name echoes in my mind. Is it her?

Al stared at me in bewilderment, so I switched the subject. "Are you going to training?" That seemed to catch him off gaurd. "Well, uh yeah I am. Which one is today?" "It's alchemy training." We finished getting ready and set out for the courtyard. There were all ready thirty men, women, and teenage girls and boys conversing with each other. They all looked between the ages of 25 and 15. _And most of the guys are ugly and snobby looking. Wait what? _I see Bella walking in and notice a few bruises and scrapes on her arms. _What kind of training does she do in the morning? _

"Attention!" she says in a military voice you'd expect from someone of her position. All the students moved into some sort of pattern I can't explain, but it sure as hell was hard to figure out. By the time I did, she was already barking up orders. Luckily I still had enough time to understand. "… working on speed and precision. As an alchemist you have to be able to use all of your senses at once and still be able to drop the other 4 senses and concentrate on that one specific sense. Sometimes it can mean the difference between life and death." She turned to face us. "Everyone choose a partner and go to a station." People scurry around us finding their usual partners. They each go to light fixtures set up around the walls. Al and I hurry to do the same. Once everyone is in position she starts talking again.

"Now, one person from every group, raise your hand!" Me and Al have a staring contest before he sighs and raises his hand. I humph triumphantly. After the rest of the groups each picked their one person, Bella (_I am so not calling her Colonel.) _looks around. As her beautiful light brown eyes pass me and Al, I see her take a double look at us so fast I'm sure most of or all of the other groups didn't see it. She broke out in a smile.

"Everyone look above your heads!" We all look up and see numers. Me and Al were 9. "Those numbers show where your fight is placed." "Fight?" Murmurs break free, covering the grounds with silent whispers. Bella stands unaffected, that wickedly attractive smile still on her face. _What? Dammit stop that! _"Now shall we begin? Team number 1, step forward into the middle." Two girls stepped into the middle of courtyard. The shorter one was curvy with long blueish-black hair and pearly white eyes. The taller one also had long black hair with medium size side bangs and she was skinny. She was less curvy definitely but she was just as pretty as the other girl. The shorter one hid behind the other just slightly.

"Who is the volunteer?" The shorter girl rose her hand. "Me, I am." Surprisingly enough she had a lot more confidence in her tone and voice than her body and actions suggested. "You have only 5 minutes to attack and defeat your partner using only alchemy, and your partner can only use alchemy to defend against those attacks. If you fail you will both be kicked out so don't hold back. Begin!"

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Twist time! I love the unexpected, it makes the world more interesting doesn't it? Well, I'll see you all in chapter 3!

Miu


	3. A realization

Wow this took a looong time didn't it. I got realll busy and couldn't work on it for a while, but seeing a particular response to one of my chapters told me it was time to start up again. Well enough wastin your time, here is Chapter 3 of Love Unexpected! Enjoy!

~Alonna

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Ed's POV

"Now begin!" The two girls unsuredly got into fighting stances and started to circle each other. Meanwhile some of the teams whisper on how they should switch partners with someone they don't know or like. Bella, in her booming voice, spoke and said, "And also, you are not allowed to change partners now." Everyone began to grumble angrily but no one dared move. The girls stopped abruptly. Then, all of a sudden, the girl with the pearly white eyes ran towards her friend incredibly fast, and along the way she was moving the ground beneath her so that huge chunks flew around her. By the time she reached her friend, pebbles and rocks and boulders were circling her. She put her left hand in the direction of a very large boulder and threw it like a bowling ball towards the other girl. She only had 5 seconds to escape from its path, and it almost took off her ankle, but she didn't attack back. She did, however, create a shield out of metal from the ground and put it in front of her. Just after she did this, the girl with the army of rocks began to throw more. I began to notice a pattern to her movements; she used her left arm to throw the boulders and large rocks, and her right arm was used for the small rocks and pebbles. Every time she threw one boulder, seconds later she would throw at least 30 rocks and pebbles, then wait a small moment before she threw another boulder. Her friend seemed to notice too. Every time a boulder was thrown her way, she took her shield and ran out of the way. Then she would immediately put her shield in front of her, and the rocks and pebbles bounced off it.

This went on for 5 minutes before the shorter girl realized it was not working. All of a sudden again, she dropped all of her ground rubble at once, shaking the ground beneath our feet. The other girl looked from behind her shield, surprised that it was not being pounded with rocks. The other girl sat down and thought. We all waited anxiously. Even Bella seemed to be very interested with this turn of events; so much so she was smiling. The short girl started to raise her head up some. And then she smiled. It was one of the most insane kinds of smiles; some of us shivered and Bella stood up to get a better view. Still seated, the girl began to mutter a string of words back to back for almost a minute. Then the list finally stopped and she stared at her friend. Nothing happened for a moment but then the ground began to shake and rumble. The other girl, now realizing what was going on stood up and seemed to be trying to put her metal shield under her when the entire ground up until just before the spectators' feet cracked and flew to the air. The flying ground impaled the girl, and, although she was also in the circle, the ground beneath those pearly eyes stayed very still. After another minute or so, everything fell back to the ground, including the girl, and was very disorganized. She lay on the ground with cuts and bruises but she was alright. The shorter girl finally stood up and took a few steps toward her friend before stopping and looking up at Bella, as did the rest of us._ Was that enough?_ Bella smiled again and nodded her head.

"Congratulations!" she boomed,  
"You both have passed. The rest of you should have learned from this first fight. They both used intelligence and strategy to find a way against the other. In the beginning Alonna _(the shorter girl I suppose)_ was held back because that was her friend, but soon she realized that she had to hurt her in order to pass. This was to test to see whether you have the guts to face a close one. Your friend today may be your enemy tomorrow, don't forget it." She stared down hard at all of us. The shorter girl was still assisting her friend, half-carrying her to their number, both smiling.

"Now! May the next pair step up!"  
A guy about 20 and a girl of about 16 came up. The girl was the volunteer, and to many people's surprise, she seriously kicked ass. By the end of that match he was coughing up small amounts of blood but was still happy to walk back to their number with her.

This same pattern went on 6 more times before it was me and Al's turn. Now, instead of my previous excitement, I was now filled with nervousness. _How much alchemy does Al know? What would he do? Everyone else knew about their partner's abilities. How do I not know about my own brother?_ Shame washed over me like high tide on a small beach.

Me and Al walked to the center and waited for Bella to tell us to start. To other people's amazement, Bella did not sit down and say go but stood up right next to the balcony separating her from the students. All was quite for a while as she stared at Al and I and we stared back. _But she might just be looking at me?_ Finally, she yelled,  
"Go!". And she still stood.

Me and Al circled each other. He looked very ready to face me, but I couldn't come up with even one piece of alchemy that Al's ever done. _Didn't he fix a radio once?_ I couldn't remember, and I had the vaguest feeling that _she_ could tell. Before I new what was happening, Al had thrown a large ball of iron at me. **What the fu-?** I ran out of the way just in time. But instead of flying into the wall, it boomeranged around and almost took my head off my shoulders. The ball fell neatly by Al's feet.

I briefly looked around. Everyone around the wall were laughing. Even the first girl and her friend. _I know I must have looked silly dodging that ball but it wasn't that funny was it?_ I looked up at Bella and her face surprised me the most. She wasn't laughing, chuckling, giggling, or even smiling. She wasn't even doing her regular, taunting smirk. She was frowning and look disappointed. I looked at her and even more guilt and shame flooded me. _Scratch flooded, it's more like a tsunami_. I gotta act quick. I got an idea. A risky idea.

I made a shield like the first girl's friend did except I added a transmutation circle in the front-middle. Every one stopped laughing and paid attention. Al, surprised as well, got ready again. Bella's face didn't change but now she was gripping the rail as if her life depended on it. Al threw it again and when it hit the shield I was sure that I skidded back at least five feet. Then, just before the ball stopped touching my shield and bouncing back off, I sent power threw the shield out of the transmutation circle on the other side and split the rock in half.

When the rock had finished its crashing to the ground noise, I was met with only pure silence, not even a bird spoke aloud. The watchers and Al were staring at me with open mouths. And then I realized something: I'm only allowed to use alchemy to defend myself. _Will that count against us? No, it couldn't. By breaking the ball I defended myself against further attacks. Right?_ It was quite for a little while longer until all of us with ears heard Bella say faintly, "Continue." We all stared up at her. Her face had softened but her mind seemed set. _Did I just get Al and I kicked out? What would Mustang say?_

We continued as she said but I was so zoned out and out of it, a rock had hit my chest and the one-person fight had ended before I felt pain. I got up dizzily and Al gave me a hand, and as we walked to our numbers, I saw Bella talking but she said no words I could understand. When we got to our number, I didn't dare look at Al's face. I just sat down and kept my head in my knees, clutching my chest because now it really hurt like a son of bit. The other numbers came by and left, some sadder than others. Sooner than I expected, I faintly heard Bella congratulate and dismiss us, and I walked alongside Al. People kept patting me on the back, saying words I didn't care for. It is only a matter of time until she'll comes for us. "Edward Elric! Report now!" Times up.

I walked away from Al and the passing crowd and thought, _I wonder why she didn't call Al. She must prefer him as a better student than me._ She was leaning against a far wall with her arms crossed. When I finally got to her we just looked at each other for a moment. Then her straight face turned into a smirk. Her regular, taunting smirk.

"You didn't hear what I told you and Al did you?" She said it as if she knew she was right.

"Um, no." She was. She smirked even more.

"I wondered why you looked so depressed. I didn't think you were that stuck up." I looked up at her in shock. Before I could ask the question she gave the answer. "You and Al are staying because you're performance was the best out of every group. Consider yourself fortunate." And she walked away without another word.

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Well, that was chapter 3! Tell me how I did and any new suggestions you all may have! Well, till next time!  
Miu


	4. A start

Miu here! Welcome to Chapter 4 of Love Unexpected. This chapter is mainly about Al and his feelings and experiences. Well, enjoy.

Extra Note: This is going to be more thought based.

~James

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Al's Point of View

_What is happening to him? I don't understand. Maybe it's just a phase. Maybe it'll stop soon. But I'm worried. Worried that I'll loose the only person I have left..._

I get up at around six to go to my first class. I use a gray cloth to shine up my armor, and walk toward the door. I walk out the room, carefully making sure I don't awaken Ed. I close the door with a soft _click, _and walk toward B Hall. B Hall is where the Cafeteria is, but on Thursdays I walk through to get to my class on C Hall.

People inside are eating and talking happily, giving news to each other and telling jokes. I hear two guys insulting a teenager's mom, but before I could cut in the girl said, "Keep talking, someday you'll

say something intelligent."

The guys didn't know what to say next so she just walked away. When I finally stopped laughing, I continued on to C Hall, trying to ignore the dumb looks on their faces as I walked by.

My classes on C Hall are Archery, History of Alchemy, and Military Training. On Thursdays I go to Military Training for 3 hours, so that's where I'm heading. A caramel skinned man named James teaches this class. He is strict and self-possessed, but he is really nice to talk to when you need a word. Today, though, as I walk in, I notice that James isn't there, but Colonel Yeda herself! Everyone in the classroom is whispering frantically, scared of even looking left or right without her permission.

I observe her as I sit on my assigned seat C7. She seems normal at first, but the more I look, the more I really see. She has dark circles under her eyes like she hasn't had proper sleep in days. Although she's trying to stand up straight, her slightly hunched form seems like the best she can do, and at odd intervals she twitches or jerks sleeply. I also, to my surprise, saw cuts and bruises on her arms and lower legs. _What is going on here? _I wonder. I look around and **no one** else seems to notice.

She cleared her throat once, and the entire world seemed to hush. Another thing I've noticed is the amount of respect she holds. People act scared of her but they respect every movement she makes. She actually talks to alot of students everyday, and every once in a while they manage to make her laugh, let alone smile. It seems amazing that someone who seems to be going through a tough time can still smile. From that point on, I began to admire her strength.

A week after my first lesson with her, she was administering our first Military Training test. We have to go through a 100 by 100 foot obstacle course in under 10 minutes. She told us there were 10 main obstacles that would randomly test our strength, speed, and critical thinking. We would be graded based on the examiners report inside the course plus our time. There were about 150 people to be tested, so people with last names A-M are doing theirs today, that includes me. Ed doesn't take this class, and because Colonel Yeda is his 1:00 Rules of Alchemy teacher, he has a free block. _He's probably eating, _said a little voice in my head. I agree, and laugh silently at myself.

The first person goes in, but doesn't come back for almost 15 minutes. We all got nervous and started making up things that may have happened to him, like flying spiders or flying **poisonous **spiders. There's a wall on both sides of the start entrance so we can't see when he comes back, but Colonel told us that he made it out in one piece, with a slight smirk. We relaxed but not that much. We still don't know what awaits us.

It was about an hour before I had to go. Colonel said,"Elrick, Alphonse!" and I, unwillingly, left my seat. She told me to stand in front of the dark entrance to the court and waited a second longer before yelling, "Go!".

In the course I went against 3 out of my 10 obstacles almost immediately. They were three-200 pound men who tackled me. I got them off with difficulty, but I managed to not waste alot of time on them. When they gave up, I still had 8 minutes left. I went on. My 4 obstacle was pushing a large rock out of my way so I could go across a bridge (_?_), and my fifth and sixth were outputting dogs and bats. By this time I had only 5 minutes to finish. I started to panic. I rushed through my 7th, 8th, and 9th obstacles, and before I knew it I was at my last one with 1 minute 40 seconds remaining. It was James. He had his arms crossed, blocking the exit.

_Would I have to fight him? _I thought frantically. He smirked.

"I have a riddle for you Al." I simply stared.

"Alright then. You have just been captured my a group of cannibals for trespassing. The chief says 'I will do something new. If you tell a lie you will be boiled alive in hot oil. If you tell a truth you will be eaten by my tiger.' What would you say, Al?"

I thought long and hard. _What would I do? I don't know! Either way I die right!? Or maybe... What if... And then... Yes! This will work!_

I look him in the eye and confidently say, "I will be boiled alive." He said nothing for a moment. My time was running out. 10... 9... 8... 7... He smiled.

"Congratulations Alphonse" he boomed, and he stepped out of my way. I ran out the door feeling successful.

Two days later our reports came in. During dinner time, Colonel personally gave me mine. She told me I passed with the highest score because I was the only one who figured out the riddle. I was so happy, if I still had a real body, I'd cry. Ed hit me on my back and yelled good job. I noticed though, as Colonel was walking away, Ed winked at her, and she smiled back. That feeling that was in my... _soul_ two days ago, suddenly came rushing back.

* * *

So how'd I do? If you're wonderin, I chose to make this a chapter about Al because I feel he doesn't get enough credit for his intelligence. Al's been through a lot but he's very strong for his age .

So how about that little brain teaser? Did you get it? Well congrats for all that got it but if you didn't don't feel bad. It took myself a while to truly understand it. I'll explain Al's choice to you.

You had to say one statement to decide your fate.

If you tell a lie you will be boiled alive in hot oil. If you tell a truth you will be eaten by a tiger.

He chose to be boiled alive.

They couldn't feed him to the tiger,

because then his statement would have

been false. Neither could they boiled

him, because his statement would have

been true. This is why he was set free.

Hoped you lliked it! Don't forget to **COMMENT!**


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